Heretofore, various apparatuses for extracorporeal diagnosis have been studied as means of carrying out chemical analysis using a biological material.
Out of those, now under study is a test apparatus for detecting a component to be measured in a biological fluid by allowing a specimen collected by contacting a biological fluid specimen to react with a test piece for measuring the component and by detecting the reaction state of the test piece to measure the component.
Immunochromatography which is one solution developing method (chromatography) is a technique for detecting an immunocomplex formed from a component to be measured and a substance for this component on a reagent layer by using a labeled reagent.
To allow the above test piece to react with a specimen containing the component to be measured in this immunochromatography, various buffers are generally added as well.
The following methods are currently employed to diagnose a component to be measured using a test piece, specimen, and buffer.
The specimen is collected with a capillary and dropped on the test piece. After that, the buffer is dropped on the test piece. The reaction state of the test piece is detected.
However, in the above method, the specimen may adhere to and remain on the inner wall of the capillary at the time of dropping by the influence of the viscosity or the like of the specimen. In this case, not all of the collected specimen could be dropped on the test piece. That is, although the capacity of the specimen collected from a subject is constant, the amount of the specimen to be used for a reaction with the reagent is not constant, thereby causing problems with the accuracy and reproducibility of the test.
Therefore, a test method for a component to be measured and a test apparatus suitably used for the method in which all of a specimen in a capillary collected from a subject can be directly transferred onto a test piece to be used for a reaction with a reagent have been desired.